Friday Night Jukebox, Vol CLXXI--The Roches: We

Any group that has a song with a lyric about the shit hitting the fan and performs it in three part harmony is aces in my book....

Maggie and Terre Roche came from deepest New Jersey and dropped out of high school in the late 60's so they could begin performing music full time.  Sister Suzzy joined them in the 70's, they cleverly named the newly formed band The Roches, and the trio would go on to become another in a long line of musical performers who were critically acclaimed and sold very few records (though I myself have three of their albums and one of Suzzy's solo efforts).  Still, over the course of thirty-eight years the sisters released thirteen LPs as a trio (the last in 2007) and ten albums in various solo and duo incarnations.  Their debut album was given a classic rating by The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Maggie and Terre provided backing vocals for Paul Simon on his There Goes Rhymin' Simon LP (featuring FNJ fave "An American Tune,"), and the Roches perfomed on Saturday Night Live, The Animaniacs (as the Roaches--get it?), and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  Sadly, eldest sister Maggie passed away in 2017.

Fun Fact:  The Roches are the only band to write a song about appearing on SNL--before their appearance in 1979, they were assured by many in the music biz that said appearance would make them into huge stars...and it didn't.  The Roches wrote "Big Nuthin'" (my second favorite Roches song) to commemorate their performance.

Released in 1979 on their aptly named debut album, The Roches, "We" was never released as a single and therefore we will have no bullets this week on the Billboard charts....

Backed only by a lightly strummed acoustic guitar, "We" is a tour de force introducing (for the most part humorously) the Roches to their listeners.  We're told they're from New Jersey but now live in NYC, they don't give out their ages or their phone numbers, that two of them have made a record before, they've performed all over the U.S. and in England, and that their last name is spelled R-O-C-H-E.  Throughout, the sisters harmonies are nothing short of exquisite, and when combined with the song's humorous bent and funky phrasing, it creates a quirky masterpiece of folk pop for the ages.

Lyric Sheet:  "We are Maggie and Terre and Suzzy/Maggie and Terre and Suzzy Roche/We don't give out our ages/And we don't give our our phone numbers..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee